Nightly Routine
by Kalira69
Summary: Keith is ready to turn in for the night, but something is missing. (Future fic. Plotless, sleepy fluff.)


This was written as part of a prompt set, with randomly-drawn pairings and prompts. This one was Keith/Pidge and 'Floor'.

* * *

Keith paused in the bedroom doorway, then sighed. He turned down the covers - not that the bed was ever really _made_ neatly - and changed into loose sleep pants, then headed back out into the corridor, letting the door slide closed behind him.

"Hey, thought you were going to bed?" Lance called out as he passed the lounge, and Keith waved a hand.

"I am." Keith replied, not pausing. He heard Lance laugh lightly behind him and guessed his friend knew what was keeping him up.

Keith tapped the pad to open the hangar door and sighed as it rose. Green was lying on the floor, one paw extended, and Pidge. . .

Keith moved into the room, circling Green, and found Pidge slouched on the floor, head down, her braid spilling over one shoulder and a tablet slipping between her fingers towards the floor. She was lying in the crook of Green's foreleg, and fast asleep. "Five years out here and you still work until you drop because you get so excited." he said fondly, shaking his head as he reached her side.

There was an open panel on Green's foreleg, and Keith paused, standing over his lover. He crouched down and nudged her lightly, stroking her cheek. "Sweetheart, do you need to finish up here before you sleep?" he asked. "Or is Green okay like this for tonight?"

Pidge made a muffled sound and fidgeted, her head tipping back. She didn't wake, though.

Green rumbled quietly, flexing her claws and lowering her head a bit over Keith and Pidge. Keith eyed her warily, but she only rumbled again, a vaguely encouraging note.

"All right. . ." Keith said, leaning forwards on one knee, pulling the tablet from Pidge's hand and pushing away the tools resting at her side. He scooped her into his arms, then rose again, Pidge's small body curling comfortably into his arms - although there was something hard in one of her cargo pockets, digging into his forearm.

Green snorted and lay her head down beside her outstretched foreleg.

"I'm sure she'll be back first thing in the morning." Keith told her, and Green's eyes shone for a moment. He bowed his head to the Lion and made his way out of her hangar.

Pidge didn't wake, all the way down the corridors to their quarters - which, fortunately, Keith was used to entering even with his arms full; of Pidge, of his armour, of whatever project either of them had decided to work on most recently. Pidge would always try and carry all her equipment herself, but it was easier just to pick up whatever was biggest nearby and trail her back.

He settled Pidge into bed and tugged off her pants - much easier than trying to empty her pockets - but left her in her panties and baggy shirt. She wasn't dirty with machine oil or anything, and the only tools she'd had on her had been in her pants pockets.

Keith pulled the messy knot out of his hair and ran a hand through it, shaking the crimped strands loose before he slid into bed. He waved a hand to lower the lights. "If you ever stop doing this," he told Pidge sleepily, "I think I wouldn't believe it was you." He turned his face a little more into the pillow and rested one hand on Pidge's side, tucked just under the hem of her shirt on warm skin.

When he woke up the next morning, Pidge was asleep with her face jammed against his shoulder, maybe drooling a little, but there was now a powered-on tablet balanced on his lower chest. Keith groaned, grabbing the tablet with one hand.

"What time is it?" he asked, and soft green Altean numbers projected onto the ceiling. He squinted at them and then stretched out his hand to let the tablet slide gently to the floor. "Fuck it." he mumbled, shifting a bit and finding he couldn't turn onto his side as he'd meant to, because Pidge was jammed against him too firmly.

Whatever. Keith rubbed her side lightly, tugged the light blanket up around them again, and went back to sleep with Pidge's dead weight sacked out mostly on top of him still. He was used to Pidge's sleeping habits by now, and found them rather endearing really.


End file.
